2007/08 AV SHIELD SUMMER SEASON
ROUND 4 - COBURG on 17 NOVEMBER 2007

The second and final home meet of the season last Saturday at Coburg saw the club’s best turn out at AV Shield in many years. Some 37 athletes recorded 100 individual performances – a recent record. This was aided by the return of one of our injured middle distance athletes and the season debut of sprinter Michael Dziadkiewicz, of the Ron Carroll stable, with the club’s fastest 100 metre time of the day in a personal best 11.94 seconds. Quite a comeback!

Competing for the first time were Courtney Leicester, Laura Selvaggo, Brendan Doyle, Jason Doyle and Ciar’an Smyth from Coburg Little Athletics. Leicester was the club’s best High Jumper for the round, while Selvaggi was the club’s second fastest sprinter. Brendan Doyle competed in three events while father Jason did the Long Jump and ran the 800 metres in a quick 2:33. And Ciar’an Smyth, now of the Ron Carroll stable, was the club’s best High Jumper for the day

Coming to us all the way from Yea in central Victoria was Celeste White. A very talented sprinter, White was the club fastest track athlete last Saturday. And last but not least, Jackie Steel also made her first appearance for the club last Saturday. Like White, Steel is a recent addition to the Brian Delaney stable and her High Jump performance showed a lot of promise. Look out for these two athletes in the weeks ahead

Perhaps benefiting from home track advantage some great personal bests were recorded. Adrianna Crea and Luke Dragon both recorded PB’s in two of their events. For Crea, a change of Walks coach paid dividends with a personal best in the 3000 metre Walk and first place for our Women’s team. Adrianna backed this up with a personal best in the 200 metres. Dragon staged a huge finish to win his heat of the 800 metres and take ten seconds of his previous best for 2:37. He then carried this form into the 1500 metres with a PB in that event. Dragon has not failed to improve on his previous performance in each of his distance events this season

Other personal bests came from Tim Conway who showed he is a bright prospect for the future with 4.45 metres in the Long Jump. But by far the gutsiest effort came from Leah Polycarpou in the 1500 metres. Taking the first lap out hard, Polycarpou eased off the pace until with 150 metres to go she kicked strongly to win her heat by a big margin. The effort took its toll, with Polycarpou in some distress afterwards as was the second placed female. A fantastic effort by Leah and her best time eight seconds. It also secured second place for the women’s team in this event. A very courageous athlete in the true Coburg spirit

The women’s team was further bolstered by the second placing of Rebecca Collyer in the Long Jump. For the men, they won the 3,000 Walk with Tim Erickson improving his own club age group record by ten seconds. And Steven Marsh was excellent in the High Jump with his 1.50 metres good enough to win the Division Two section of this event. Daniella Modesti came third in the 1500 metres and Filip Cosic made it a Coburg quinella when he came second in the Walk behind Erickson

So at the end of Round Four, our Women’s team pulled out the kind of performance some pundits were predicting at the start of the season. They completely dominated the round and are now equal second on the ladder. If they can keep this form going – and get all girls qualified – their prospects look promising for the Region Final. Our Division 2 men finished fourth to stay in third place overall, while our Division Three men have continued their strong form to maintain top place on the ladder despite finishing second on Saturday. Our Division Four men scored their first win of the season and have moved into first place on the ladder

IMPORTANT NEWSFLASH

Sent via email to all athletes were the new rules pertaining to the sprint events. Please read the guidelines carefully to ensure you are not caught out. Any queries should be directed to myself so that I can pass them onto North West Region management

And please keep in mind that this Saturday we are at Aberfeldie and NOT Williamstown as advertised in the Handbook. There has been a date swap with the Williamstown meet now occurring on Saturday, 1 December 2007

SOCIALLY SPEAKING

The Coburg Little Athletics annual Trivia Night is being held on Saturday, 1 December. Please let me know if you can come along as we compete for the pride of the Coburg Harriers. We have several spots left at our table and would love you to join us. Kids welcome. Strictly BYO drinks and food. Just $10 a head

DATES TO REMEMBER

Saturday, 24 November 2007   Round 5 at Aberfeldie from 1:00 pm
Saturday, 1 December 2007     Round 6 at Williamstown from 1:00 pm. Little Aths Trivia Night to follow
Tuesday, 4 December 2007      Round 7 at Aberfeldie from 6:00 pm

Have you seen us on the web? Visit our Facebook Group or Yahoo Groups today. Our Facebook group has just been updated with group photo's from the 2006 winter season